Take-Home Exam Availability

Take-home exams are administered remotely. You will use:

• Exam4 website to access the questions, and
• Exam4 software to prepare and submit your response.

Take-home exams are either date-specific or may be taken anytime during the exam period. 

• Date-specific take-home exams: 
  • Available for download from the Exam4 website from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on the assigned date. 
  • The clock will begin to run as soon as you have accessed your exam via the Exam4 website. You must prepare and submit your response via the Exam4 software by the end your allotted time (set by your instructor) or by 11:59 p.m. on that day, whichever comes first.
• Anytime take-home exams: 
  • Available for download from the Exam4 website from 12:01 a.m. on the first day of the exam period to 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the exam period.
  • The clock will begin to run as soon as you have accessed your exam via the Exam4 website. You must prepare and submit your response via the Exam4 software by the end your allotted time (set by your instructor) or by 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the exam period, whichever comes first.

It is important to plan your take-home exam start time accordingly so that you have your full time. For example, if you have an 8-hour specific-date take-home exam, and you start it at 6 p.m., it will still be due at 11:59 p.m., even though you have not used the full 8 hours. The same is true for anytime take-home exams - the final deadline to submit is 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the exam period, so be sure to start early enough to get your full time. 

To the extent possible, we strongly encourage you to take your take-home exams during normal business hours, as Law School staff and the Law School Help Desk may not be available after hours (see Law School Help Desk hours). 

All times are listed in Central Time. 

Take-home exam instructions

before exam day

1. Review the Exam4 Software Instructions page carefully. 
2. Watch the Exam4 "How-To" Videos to prepare for exams.
3. Uninstall any previous versions of the Exam4 software installed on your computer. 
4. Download the updated version of the Exam4 software, which you must do every semester after the Law School notifies students that the Exam4 software is ready for the current exam period. If you have midterms that use the Exam4 software, you will need to download it twice per semester: once for midterms and once for final exams. 
5. Take as many practice exams as necessary to get comfortable with the software, and familiarize yourself with all of the Exam4 features. 
6. Familiarize yourself with the procedures for technical issues and personal emergencies, so that you know how to proceed in the event you encounter an issue before, during, or submitting your exam. 

On Exam Day

1. Launch the Exam4 software and begin the appropriate exam in the Exam4 software.
   1. Your time does NOT start by beginning the exam in the Exam4 software; rather, your time starts as soon as you access the exam via the Exam4 website, as described in step 2, below. 
2. Download the exam questions from the Exam4 website.
   
   1. Go to the Exam4 webpage: www.exam4.com 
   2. Select "Law Schools" from the left menu.
   3. Select "University of Wisconsin Law School" from the list.
   4. Select the exam you wish to start from the list of available take-home exams in the right blue box.
   5. Enter your exam number in the "Examinee ID" box.
   6. When you are ready, click "Start Exam." Your time has now officially started!
   7. Review the “Exam Question & Instructions” box carefully. The exam itself is under this box as a PDF file attachment, which you must download - you can print the PDF of the exam after downloading, if desired. 
   8. Make careful note of the deadline to submit your exam answer - you will find your deadline on the right under "Due Date."
   9. You will NOT need to return to the Exam4 webpage, unless you need to re-read the "Exam Question & Instructions" box, re-download the exam itself, and/or confirm your submission deadline. If you need to return to this page, you should log back in by following steps 2a. through 2e., above.
3. Prepare your exam answer in the Exam4 software.
   
   1. During take-home exams only, you can cut, copy, & paste from an external document into Exam4. However, we strongly recommend that you write your exam answer directly in Exam4, because formatting and word counts will NOT be preserved when copying from an external document into Exam4. More importantly, however, Exam4 files are backed up every two minutes and easily retrieved in the case of computer malfunction, but other programs do not provide you this protection. If your computer crashes and you lose some of your work, the Law School may not be able to assist you and there will be NO recourse if you used Word (or any other application other than Exam4) to prepare your exam answer.
4. OPTIONAL: If you wish to exit the Exam4 software and continue working on your exam later, follow the instructions to suspend and resume your exam.
   1. Your time will continue to run during any breaks. 
5. Submit your exam answer via the Exam4 software by your deadline.
   
   1. Once you have submitted your exam, you will not be permitted to make any changes to the document, even if time is still remaining.

Practice Take-Home Exam

Review the practice exam information on the Exam4 Instructions page. After doing so, follow the take-home exam instructions above. You should select "Practice Exam TAKEHOME" in the Exam4 software as the "course."

As a reminder, the exam questions will NOT appear in the Exam4 software. During a practice take-home exam, you should practice accessing the exam questions via the Exam4 website, which is how you will access the exam questions during an actual exam. 

Procedures for technical issues

The following are procedures for various technical problems that may arise. To the extent possible, we strongly encourage you to take your take-home exams during normal business hours, as Law School staff and the Law School Help Desk may not be available after hours. 

And remember, taking a practice exam is the best way to troubleshoot before your exam starts!

• Technical issues at the beginning of an exam
  • Extra time will NOT be provided for preventable technical issues at the beginning of an exam, such as forgetting to download the latest version of the Exam4 software.
  • Be sure to take a practice exam before each exam period - once before midterms and once before final exams - with the latest Exam4 software version to address these common problems, and confirm that you see the correct semester and exam period (midterms v. final exams) listed in the Exam4 software. 
• Technical issues during an exam
  • We strongly recommend that you write your exam answer directly in Exam4, because Exam4 files are backed up every two minutes and easily retrieved in the case of computer malfunction, but other programs do not provide you this protection. 
  • If your computer crashes and you lose some of your work, the Law School may not be able to assist you and there will be NO recourse if you used Word (or any other application other than Exam4) to prepare your exam answer.
• Technical issues at the end of an exam (submission issues)
  • As of the Spring 2022 term, take-home exams must be submitted via the Exam4 software. You CANNOT submit your exam via the Exam4 website, as you may have done in the past. 
  • If you've prepared your exam using a different application (e.g., Word), you should copy and paste your exam answers into the Exam4 software and submit your exam answers electronically via the Exam4 software. Your exam will be considered late if you copy and paste your answers from a different application into the Exam4 software after your deadline, as the Law School cannot verify that you did not do any substantive work on your exam after your deadline.
  • Be sure to take a practice exam to familiarize yourself with the new take-home exam submission process.